


Skybound: Rewritten

by SmoothPebbles



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Fix-It, Flashbacks, Gen, Humor, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, there's still going to be some romantic elements later on but they're not the primary focus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-09
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:08:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 18,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23078335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmoothPebbles/pseuds/SmoothPebbles
Summary: Jay's got a lot more bubbling beneath the surface than he wants the others to know about.With a new threat along the way however, this seems to be the perfect distraction to keep everyone from looking too far into himself.That is, until that very threat knows the secrets he's been keeping and intends to use this information to only break him further.With their mentors gone and every ounce of himself screaming to keep his problems inside, how is he going to be able to pull through?More importantly, will he be able to?(on a temporary hiatus!)
Comments: 26
Kudos: 54





	1. Mischievous Doings

**Author's Note:**

> !! Heyo, so I'm short on introductions but to put it simply this is going to be my first fic and I'm really excited to share it with everyone!
> 
> Season six has always meant a lot to me since it came out, I always thrive whenever Jay gets more screentime, but I feel like there was so much potential that could've been expanded upon so after years over obsessing over this season, I decided to try my hand at it!
> 
> Fair warning early on to keep an eye on the tags, I'll be updating any major changes that come along, but I'd also like to mention this isn't going to be a completely clean-cut rewrite. This is more a bunch of my own headcanons mixed with more mature development of ideas that the show originally gave off with Skybound.
> 
> I always feel like Jay and his own issues deserve more spotlight, and with season 12 on the way, what a perfect time to expand on the last time he was given some major time to shine?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !! Heyo, so I'm short on introductions but to put it simply this is going to be my first fic and I'm really excited to share it with everyone!
> 
> Season six has always meant a lot to me since it came out, I always thrive whenever Jay gets more screentime, but I feel like there was so much potential that could've been expanded upon so after years over obsessing over this season, I decided to try my hand at it!
> 
> Fair warning early on to keep an eye on the tags, I'll be updating any major changes that come along, but I'd also like to mention this isn't going to be a completely clean-cut rewrite. This is more a bunch of my own headcanons mixed with more mature development of ideas that the show originally gave off with Skybound.
> 
> I always feel like Jay and his own issues deserve more spotlight, and with season 12 on the way, what a perfect time to expand on the last time he was given some major time to shine?

Something that becomes increasingly clear when you’re tinkering outdoors for hours on end would be just how hot the sun really is. Today was no exception to that fact, and the little boy sitting in the sand could tell you all about it.

  
  


It was past midday, the sun arching overhead, the heat still as present and blazing as it had been for the past however many hours. The main target of the sun’s cruel glare was a junkyard yet named, the conglomerations of scrap metal attracting the heat with ease.

This seemed to be little other than a normal Tuesday afternoon for the boy found sitting near the edge of the junk piles, however. He had been busy at work since he’d seen the sunrise, wanting to soak up every once of spare sunlight he could get. Under the heat, he uncomfortably twisted his dad’s wrench further onto a set bolt, his small hands aching from the number of times he’d done this today, but his mind was determined to keep going, he was almost finished anyways.

With a few more quickly placed taps from a nearby hammer, as well as a thorough check-up to ensure everything was in working order, he scooted back from his work, admiring it with pride.

_I can’t believe I managed to get it finished in time! Mom and Dad are gonna love this-_

“Jay! Come inside baby, it’s going to get cold out before you know it, especially with daylight savings an’ all!” His mom called from across the yard. He wasn't in her line of sight at the time, but he turned his head to better answer her nonetheless.

“Just a second ma’!” He wiped his hand across his forehead, taking one last glance at his creation before he started packing up. He tossed the toolbox back together with no piece out of place, putting it onto his nearby wagon- of which he also put the creation he’d worked so tirelessly on that day. With everything in its place, he grabbed the handle and began to trot to where his parents would be.

The sun remarkably did begin to dim as he was going along, or at least that’s how it seemed, as the solar-powered lights began to flicker on throughout the park- illuminating the various cars and hunks of scrap as he passed by. It became apparent how close he was to his ‘real’ home, although he considered the entirety of the junkyard to be just that, as he could hear the faint radio that came from his dad’s windowsill grow louder and louder.

Sure enough, with one glance upwards from the rest of his surroundings, he saw his mom holding the trailer door open for him, the decorative Christmas lights hung across the siding lighting the corners of her face.

“Welcome back to the land of the living dear,” she teased. “I’m glad you’ve come back to join us, did you have fun working on that new invention of yours?” He dragged the wagon to the edge of the trailer, grabbing said mentioned piece with both his hands, a cut piece of tarp hiding what exactly was underneath.

“You bet I did!” He grinned, holding the covered item closer for her to see, “Sorry it took so long, I just wanted to make sure everything was just right! It was- or uh, _is_ a surprise after all!”  
  
“Oh, a surprise!! Let me call your father,” she turned her head into the trailer, but quickly turned back to him in a hushed voice, “Oh wait, is it for him too, or is this just a super-secret-mom-exclusive sort of surprise? You know that while I love him, my sweet Ed can’t keep a secret to save his life.”  
  
He giggled, “Yeah it’s for him too don’t worry! Actually, this might work out better if we were all inside after all” 

“Well then, why don’t we head on in?” She remarked, “Right! But before we do, could you do me a favor? I meant to turn the security lights on while I was waiting for you, but it slipped my mind when I saw that dusty hair of yours,” she lightly ruffled his hair, “If you could turn those on for me, you know it’d mean the world.”

He glanced out to the pole where the security light breakers were, it wasn’t too far out.

“Sure, no worries ma’. But uh, do you think I could leave this here?” He gestured to the object in his hands, “It’s kinda heavy..” 

“Oh dear of course,” she reached out to grab it, but he pulled a bit away before she could. She looked at him with sincerity, “I promise I won’t look to see what it is before you’re ready, I’d pinkie promise on it if your hands were free.”

His mother was never known to break a pinkie promise, so he obliged and handed it over to her. She gave a slight grunt as she caught the weight of it, but after a moment she regained her composure.

“Not even a peek alright! It’s top-secret until I get back,” he said, heading towards the pole, “I won’t take long!”

He watched her place his work onto the indoor counter, shutting the door behind her as he turned away with a skip in his step. The sun had begun to set as he was walking, he slowed for a moment to admire the different hues before returning on his path.

_Wow, have I really been out here that long?_

He mused about it, finally reaching the metal box on the pole with a skid in his step, he’d almost missed it, lost for a moment in his own little world. He lightly tapped the box, checking to see if the heat had carried over, making it too hot to touch, but it seemed to be fine to use. The box opened with a loud creak, the rust on the hinges being to blame. 

Taking a quick glance across the switchboard, he found the very switch he was looking for and flipped it up- waiting for the soft hum of electricity to indicate it’d be on when night fell. 

But nothing like that seemed to come. 

He waited for that familiar sound, flipping the switch repeatedly off and on again for good measure, but that noise was nowhere to be found. 

_Aw, dang it- come on_ , Jay thought to himself, becoming frustrated that such a simple task seemed to be getting the better of him. _What am I gonna do, I don’t want to make them come out here when it’s dark out to get these fixed.. What can I do?_

He pondered it over, not much was coming to mind, _Maybe I could sneak in an electrician? No by the time they’d get here they wouldn’t be able to find me in the dark either anyways.. Maybe.._ He stopped pacing with a start, a firm glance to the box as an idea had reached his mind, maybe it wasn’t the smartest but he was running low on options, making it seem all the more appealing.

_Well maybe if I just-_

He gave the box one hard _WACK_ across the top, remembering how his parents would do the same to the old TV set- but before he could even begin to have another thought, a sharp spike of electricity soared through him, shocking his train of thought to a screeching halt-

* * *

-waking himself up from his long dream with his heart beating out of his chest. 

This wasn’t the first time he’d shocked himself awake, the static sticking to the blanket and his nervous system a wreck, but he’d always hoped it’d be his last.

He sat up, taking a glance across the room as his adrenaline continued to pump, noting the dim light passing through the blinds across the floorboards. He was really glad they’d been able to get the Bounty back in full swing again after it being torn apart time and time again, the whole ‘Morro’ ordeal being no exception with its own wears and tears.

Another thing he had been really grateful for was the long-awaited switch from bunk beds to separate beds. Sure, it made the room less spacious in total, but for days like these with his electricity shocking the sheets and frame- he was more than willing to trade some extra space for the security of his friends. He wouldn’t seriously hurt them if he had, the most major case he’d had landed Kai with a week-long unfixable bedhead, but he didn’t want to risk it anyways.

Glancing that very ninja’s way, across the room, he saw Kai, mouth agape, nearly all the covers thrown off of him- _why didn’t he just take them off his bed in the first place?_ \- sleeping as soundly as they come. Taking another look around the room, he saw that the rest of his teammates were also resting at ease, mind Cole’s snoring, but it was easy enough to tune out.

_Good to see Zane’s still sleeping._

Zane was always a good indicator of the time, even on the days once in a blue moon where Sensei would accidentally sleep in, Zane was always up and at the ready whenever his internal clock told him to be. _I wonder if he literally has a clock in there somewhere... Knowing his dad, probably._ In any case, it was good to know he hadn’t missed anything important. 

He decided to get out of bed, his pounding chest seemingly not relenting anytime soon. He quietly crossed the room, closing the door behind him. Now facing the dark hallway lit indirectly by the upcoming sunlight, he went across to the dining room.

On other days like these, when he’d woken up with a start, he might’ve opted to go catch up on some video games- but right now his stomach took priority over that unspoken routine. Stepping into the dining area his mind wandered, thinking of how they’d managed to really transform this ship into a home. Years ago if someone had told him this is where he’d end up, a ship soaring across the sky, a ship with working electricity and plumbing at that, he might’ve called you crazy.

Reaching the fridge, he grabbed the milk carton, hearing that once again familiar hum.

_Sometimes the facilities here work better than they used to back home._

He grabbed the box of cereal from the counter, carelessly pouring a handful into his mouth as he went to get a proper bowl. He pulled one from the dishrack, mixing the milk together to finish his makeshift breakfast. 

He pushed a spoonful into his mouth as he sat down at the dining table. He caught himself staring out the nearby window as he ate, daydreaming again.

_It shouldn’t be too long before the rest of the gang gets up now._

* * *

He’d be right on that thought, as it seemed right before his eyes the Bounty transformed from the peaceful serene place it was to the chaotic mess he’d always known it to be.

Everyone had something to do, somewhere to be, even if that “somewhere” was just the bathroom to get changed. He’d thankfully already gotten dressed, as he could hear Cole arguing with Kai over him taking too much time in there down the hall. Lloyd was off getting ready in his own room- _It’s good he finally got his own_ , remembering their time cramped together when Lloyd was younger, _I don’t know how much longer all five of us would’ve lasted in that small room together._

“Jay.”

“Hh- what?” He snapped himself back into place. He’d moved from the dining table to the lounge, where he was joined by Nya and Zane, who were in the midst of having a conversation. “Sorry, I think I zoned out for a second.”

Nya smiled, “No worries, we were just wondering what you think Sensei’s going to be talking about.”

Last night before any of them had gone to bed, Wu had told them he had an important announcement to make, and that he was only going to say once so they’d better not miss it. While he was almost always vague, that didn’t stop everyone from worrying. They’d all woken up extra frantic because of what he’d said, unanswered questions only filling the air; at least that’s what he’d hoped was causing all the extra ruckus throughout the ship. 

It was the one time he was grateful for his unwelcome morning wake-up call, at least he hadn’t had to rush through his food.

“Oh- I was thinking about that, and honestly there are too many things it could be, leave it to Sensei to be cryptic as always,” He gestured to both of them in his old game show host voice, “Place your bets people! We’ve got a lucky number on ‘mystery pupil’ and a special if anyone wants to guess the riddle he always seems to say! Any takers?”

“How about ‘I’m going away for a while to go deal with something Garmadon-related?” Nya joked, humoring him, “This would be, what- the fifth time he’s done that?”

“Third if I’m right,” Zane retorted, “If you count him leaving to get Garmadon back when we had the original golden weapons as well as the time he went with yourself to go get that Tomorrow’s Tea.”

She shrugged with a slight grin, “Guess I overestimated, but hey you know what they say about the rule of three-”  
  
“What’s going on in here?” Kai said, peeking his head through the doorway, his hair looking justified in him having spent a good hour in the mirror, not a strand out of place.

“Greetings contestant!” Jay hopped in, “We’re playing the ever-popular ‘What-Mysterious-Thing-Is-Sensei-Going-To-Tell-Us-This-Time’! Today we’ve got a special, ‘I’m only going to say this once’ edition! So far we’ve got him going away on a journey, dealing with something Garmadon-esque,” He gestured toward Nya, as being the one to have given the guess, as he did he got up, scooching closer to Kai. He held up his hand to him in the fashion of holding an invisible microphone.

“Got another guess for the board?”

“Ooo that’s a good one sis, but picking Garmadon might’ve been a little too out there, If I’d guess I’d say-”

“Uh, I’ll take ‘there’s something I haven’t told you yet’ for 400,” Cole butted in, walking in right after Kai, who gave him a glare.

“Hey! I was going to guess that first!” 

“Sure you were,” Cole said, pulling his hair up with the hair tie he almost always had on his wrist, “In any case, that was for hogging the bathroom, I stole your answer so now we’re even.” He chuckled, going to slump beside Zane on the furthest couch. The rest of the team gave a soft ‘ohhh’ in response to his comment, as if they really were a live studio audience.

Kai gave a huff, going to sit on the couch with Jay and Nya, “Well we don’t even know if that’s what he’s going to say anyways, so if he doesn’t say that then who’s the real winner?” He gave a smug look to his earthy friend, who just grinned back at him, still amused.

“I think it’d be Nya then in that context,” Zane countered, causing each of the ninja to let out a snicker. 

“Well!” Jay started, rebounding off of his friends’ laughter, “If that’s all the guesses we have today on what Sensei-”

“What _about_ me?” Wu questioned, immediately stunning the room, Jay jumped from the sudden noise.

_Geez! How does he always manage to get the jump on us?_

“Nothing bad Sensei!” Cole admitted, quickly shifting from his comfortable demeanor by pulling his shoulders back and sitting up straight, “We were just wondering what was the big deal today.” 

Wu walked further into the room, every eye glued to him, or they would be if he wasn’t promptly followed by Lloyd and..

“Miss Misako? What are you doing here?” Jay voiced, which was shortly followed by a whack to the head by his teacher’s very own staff.

“It appears we still need to work on _patience_ from you all,” Wu lead, “After all good-”

“-Things come to those who wait.” The ninja recited, Jay rubbing his head and going to sit back down where he originally was. Nya offered him a comforting look before glancing back to their Sensei.

“Well, I’m glad not every teaching I have is lost on you all,” He chuckled to himself, Misako fighting a snicker as well, but poorly, “In any case, there’s no point in wasting any more time, I wouldn’t have brought her if I didn’t have a reason, so let’s get to it shall we?” He waved to Lloyd and his mother, urging them to follow him to the front of the room.

His staff clacked against the wooden floor, he stood for everyone to clearly see with his company. He stroked his beard once, twice, not once glancing at any of his students, his eyes shut as if lost in a memory. He took a deep breath in before looking to them all,

  
  


“I’m sorry.” 

  
  


The anticipation broke, the tense postures of the past grew into those of raised and squinted eyebrows. In the minds of them all, a simple one-word question was tugging at them all, ‘ _What?’_

But they knew better than to pry right away, _patience right_? This alone had already looked hard enough to say without their usual interruptions.

  
  


“I- I don’t think I ever properly apologized to all of you for everything that happened a few weeks ago, I should have told you all about… him, long ago,” He gazed at Lloyd for a moment before turning back towards the others. He’s already apologized to him, but it’s still fresh.

“I always seem to do that don’t I?” He quired, “After all, you all even joked about it before I got here did you not?” They all gave a nervous look towards one another, a silent confirmation.

He sighed, lightly tapping the ground with his staff, “I know I do. I originally thought it might be best to keep this from all of you, my past is my own after all. Yet- no matter how many times I tried to hide it away, or try not to let you all get involved, it always comes right back at us.” He gave a somber look, his eyes not looking towards anything or anyone in particular. 

The faint noises of the air conditioner above them all was all that could be heard as the cool air emitting from it attempted to waft out the tension in the room.

“You could say-” Lloyd began, all eyes now shifting towards him, “that your past always comes back to haunt us..?”

A beat. 

Jaws dropped as a loud noise of laughter came bursting out of them all, it echoed throughout the room, bouncing unexpectedly from person to person.

“Lloyd!! That’s--”

“Did you just-” 

“Oh mY GOD-”

“A ghost joke Lloyd, really?” Cole huffed, “I should think you would be more sensitive to those of the ghostly variety still here.” 

“Hey, I’d say I’ve earned the right to make a ghost joke or two!”

“Oh, _you’ve_ earned the right??”

Cole tried to keep on his stern face, but couldn’t help but crack a smile as Lloyd cracked up himself.

It seemed like just like that, the unease in the room had broken- that’s what made them a family, they were always able to come back from even the worst of times with laughter. Jay’s voice saying, ‘ _sometimes a good joke is all you need for things to turn around’,_ echoed in their heads.

Except Jay’s, ironically.

He was too busy giggling to think.

  
  


“Well let’s get back on track-” Misako led, nudging Wu lightly, with that the noise began to simmer down to a comfortable silence.

“Yes yes, back to the matter at hand.” He grabbed his staff with more certainty than before.

“With things coming up that I’ve kept from you continuously, I feel it’s best if I go away for a short while. There are some other things in my past that I wish to confront face-to-face so that you all aren’t caught in that crossfire again.”

He looked at the digital board on the wall, Misako pressed a nearby button, bringing it to life with the image of the island map grazing across the pixels. He traced his finger from their current location to an area further towards the landscape up North.

“I will be heading towards Perception Peaks to tie loose ends with a person I met with back with when I was younger, I’ve always needed to go back, I figure I should follow my own advice and not waste the time I’m currently gifted-” 

“Uh,” Cole interrupted, “Not to be rude or anything but that’s kinda far Sensei- how long are you going to be gone for?” his eyebrows furrowed.

_He’s right,_ Jay pondered _, why are the mountains so poorly named anyways? I mean they’re accurate but come on, first the Mountain of a Million Steps, then the Mountains of Impossible Height, now this? Would it kill them to make the Really Easy for a Short Jog Mountains, or even the Actually Just Hills seen from Far Away Mountains?_

“It’s hard to say, no more than a week and a half, I trust you’ll be able to handle yourselves.”

A soft murmur of excitement crowded across the room, Kai eventually bursting through that sound level with a whoop, “You're not kidding? A week and a half?” He was practically buzzing now, his hands tapping at his thighs like a percussionist. 

“If everything goes smoothly, yes,” Wu continued, looking at him with his customary exasperated look on his face, “Why, is there something I’m missing?”

“No no no no- nothing of the sort,” Kai said, getting up, indicating that _yes,_ in fact, it _was_ something of the sort.

“I just hope you have a nice time out there, is that too much to ask? Go out, relax, blow off some unresolved stuff from years ago, enjoy some _you_ time- right?”

“Kai-” Wu began.

“Now look, I know what you’re going to say but I really think this time away will be good for all of us, go enjoy yourself and we’ll be here, being responsible-”

“Kai-”

“Okay not _totally_ responsible, but we won’t destroy the place, heck we’ll even train with Lloyd more than usual to make sure we stay in shape-”

“ _Kai-_ ” It was Lloyd this time, promptly breaking the other’s train of thought as he continued, “I’m uh, actually going to be going with ‘em.”

“What??” Everyone exclaimed. Kai spun to properly face him, “Aw why? Come on man, we can’t have a sick party with you gone-” 

“A _what_ , now?” Misako eyed him with a smirk.

_Busted_ , “Fine- I was thinking to throw a party for us while Sensei was away,” he caught Wu’s side-eye right away, but continued anyways, “I figured we all could use a proper break, and if there’s anyone who deserves to let loose and have a little fun it’s you, Lloyd.”

“Yeah, I definitely still have a lot to work through after that whole mess,” He smiled at them, and though his eyes were tired, it reached his eyes with ease, “But I’ll be alright. I’ve had some time to think about it and I really think this will do me some good.”

He leaned against one of the sofas, still standing, “There’s a lot I still need to get off my chest, about dad, about Morro… From what I’ve heard though, this is a good place I could go to get my footing back, and hopefully find some peace with it.”

“Plus,” he turned to give a sly grin to the rest of the ninja, “My uncle over here doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to these things, can’t help to have some backup in case something goes wrong.”

  
  


Wu gave him a fake glare which earned a stifled laugh from the rest of his students, “Well I can’t say you’re fully wrong, and that’s also why Miss Misako will also be joining us-”

“-To an extent.” She cut in, “I’m not the best fighter myself as you no doubt know, but I do want to be there for Lloyd, and hopefully work on mending some bridges myself.” She looked towards him, who gave a soft nod.

They still hadn’t fully reconnected, but with every step like this she’s trying to take, they were on their way to finding solid ground.

“We’ll be leaving shortly, so I’d suggest you say your goodbyes while you can,” Wu stated, turning back with a somber look striking across his eyes, “Are you sure you all are going to be alright?”

Kai, who probably wasn’t the best voice of reassurance at the time, responded, “Don’t worry about us Sensei, you’ve taught us well enough to look after ourselves for a while now. No parties, promise..” He smirked, eyebrows wiggling across his forehead, “You’re _sure_ you don’t want to stay longer?~”

Wu gave him a long stare, but eventually tore his gaze from him back to the hallway, “Don’t make me regret leaving you all in charge.”

* * *

Wu, Misako, and Lloyd all set off little more than an hour later, goodbyes were given, hugs were shared, and promises were made to “bring back something cool”.

Well, the last one was primarily Nya and Cole, but they felt it was important enough to ask.

The sky stood tall, a full day to look forward to standing before them all underneath the ship’s open sails, “Looks like it’s smooth sailing today everyone!” Nya cheered hopping down to the lower level of the ship, where Zane, taking the staircase built for achieving that same purpose, soon followed.

“She’s right! According to my calculations, the weather should stay mildly cloudy today with little wind, which is perfect for just about anything- even just ‘chilling out’-”

“Unless you mean to actually _chill_ , then the weather is less than ideal,” Pixal commented, her voice sounding clear and crisp through Zane’s speakers.

“Of course, but figurative speech would imply otherwise,” He replied, walking towards his shorter friend of his, Cole, who in turn threw his elbow across his shoulder greeting him.

“So what I’m _hearing_ is it’s perfect weather for that party Kai was talking about?” Cole inquired, drawing the attention of their mutually shorter friend.

_Wait a miNUT-_ “Is _everyone_ on board with this party now??” Jay yelled from the deck.

“Seems like you’re the odd one out this time, zap trap” Cole snickered, Jay turned to face his nindroid friend, “They got you too Zane? I thought you were supposed to be the voice of reason around here!”

“Well statistically speaking, the weather is perfect for any sort of activities we could plan for today,” Zane turned to the sound of the sliding door, where Kai emerged holding a box of what Jay could only assume to be the mischievous party supplies, “-and _fun_ -damentally speaking, I do think we’ve earned some time off, I’d hate to pass up any time we _all_ get to get together.”

Kai beamed, practically throwing the box to the ground as he ran towards the gang, everyone now mutually standing together near the mast.

_Well everyone but me_ , Jay thought, standing apart from them with his arms now crossed. In a mocking tone he said, “Wow what would Sensei Wu say? His students, his pupils, the children he’s treated as his _own_ , breaking the promise they made to him? Tsk, you ought to be ashamed.”

Nya let out a chuckle as Kai strode towards him, latching each of their hands together as he tried to shimmy himself closer to the rest of the gang.

“ _Aw_ come on Jay, it’s going to be _tons_ of fun, plus when else are we gonna get a chance like this to go all out? We could even splurge and get some of those weird chips you like~”

Jay scoffed, “Kai! Bribery? What crimes will we not commit today??” He stood his ground even as the tug of Kai’s hands longed for movement. _Man, are his hands always this warm? It’s not even that hot out. Eh, he must just be really pumped for this party, it does sound like it’ll be fun.. Wonder if he’ll actually get those chips.._

He looked at Kai’s positively giddy eyes and finally surrendered “Well, if you’re all going to engage in this act of rebellion _,_ count me in!” With that, he let Kai pull him into the group with a bounce in his step, their hands separating as Kai went to stand in the center.  
  


“Alright!! We’ve only got a day or two to have the greatest party ever before we feel legitimately guilty over having one, so let’s get to it! What’ve we got?”

Cole spoke up, “I’m going to get the best music tracks I’ve got across whatever’s closest we’ve got, speakers, radio, tape deck, record player? We’ll be covered.”

“If you’re doing that, I’ve got to make sure all our sound systems are fully functional, not to mention the lighting and flight itself- gotta ensure everything goes smoothly! Nya chimed in.

“We already know Zane’s going to be cooking,” one of them said, but no one was sure who exactly as it was pretty much a general consensus, even Zane nodded along, maybe it was him in the first place.

“I for one, nominate Jay to be on the clean-up crew,” Kai stated, holding a mock checklist which he seemingly checked off with a wave of his hand. 

_You’ve got to be smoking me,_ Jay groaned, “Isn’t it your turn on the chore wheel for that?”.

“Wait yeah,” Nya turned, focusing further on her brother, “After Zane, myself, Jay, and Cole, it’s definitely your turn, you don’t get to just pass it off because you don’t want to.”

“I’ll have you know I worked hard on that to ensure we all get even working time between each other,” Zane commented. Kai uttered some excuse over being busy with training, causing Nya to object again with, “More like busy in the mirror- if you’re not going to commit to the chore wheel, you don’t deserve the stickers you’ve got, they aren’t earned”  
  
The stickers Nya was referring to came from the ‘prize box’ Lloyd had created as a way to incentivize the others (as well as himself) to clean up. Lloyd had tons of small goodies in there, ranging from Jay’s personal favorite- aesthetic trinkets that he used to decorate his shelves in their shared room, to the aforementioned sticker packets. 

“You!! Take that back, I fully scrubbed that kitchen last week and earned those customizable food with faces ones-”, “If you want that respect, earn it back,” Nya huffed.

“Alright!! It’s cool!! I’m cool!! You know what yeah- Jay go ahead you can take what I was going to do, which is decorations, if that sounds like an easier job?”

_I’m so going to put his stickers all over the walls._

“For sure, that’s a lot better, I bet getting rid of the dust bunnies will be a lot easier when you can just set them aflame,” he assured Kai, who in return offered him an icy ( _well it can’t be icy he’s the fire ninja, so a lukewarm at best)_ glare, “Just make sure you don’t take _too_ much of my stuff when trying to decide on what stylish stuff you want to use to decorate-”

_Oh, I’m definitely putting them all over the walls._  
  


  
With a few more quips and jabs at each other, they each eventually broke off to do their part to get this show on the road. Kai ended up finishing early and sent after Jay to determine which colors matched where- who was soon joined by Nya offering the same advice.

_I’m being followed by the nail polish twins over here.. They sure do know a lot about this stuff, I’ll just leave them to it,_ he resigned.

With the siblings covering the decorations, Cole and Zane returning from their jobs successful, and the sun beginning to dim in the sky, it was finally time for this party to get into full swing.

* * *

The sky of Ninjago City boomed that night, the Bounty carrying the melody of songs surpassing genres of each other through its sails. The ninja of the sky were happy to be enjoying some well-deserved time off while the people below were content, knowing that if anything were to happen, the ninja were close enough to come in a moment’s notice; why not let them enjoy their fun?

These immense feelings of satisfaction and exhilaration weren’t bound to the city however, a stronger presence becoming known as his own toxic amounts of these feelings spread like a fog.

The cover of night was welcoming to all sorts of things, which is why the ninja used it to their advantage whenever they were given the chance. If offered a blanket of protection from watching eyes, allowing the chance to make risky moves. 

Tonight it seemed someone wanted to take the night sky up on that opportunity.

Stiix was sadly the victim of another restless night, as the sound of metal scraping and clanging against each other crept throughout the outer docks. A pair of greedy hands were to blame, digging through the seemingly useless piles of junk.

The moonlight shimmered across an array of assortments of rubble and gleamed especially at something otherwise mostly left buried. This caught the eyes of the somewhat opaque, hooded figure who’d been making the racket. 

He hastily rushed over to where the beam of light had been reflected, taking off his gloves as he dug deeper, deeper, and even more so until finally he pulled out the item he’d been scrounging for. His eyes widened as a smile crept across his face,

“Oh, this _has_ to be it,” 

His hands grazed upon the smooth, if not largely dusty, object, glossing over each ridge and crevice with both his eyes and fingertips. He turned the object over and over itself to get a good look at every inch of it, as if it was going to disappear on him, his hands turning almost completely transparent to allow him a better view of it.

A teapot is all it would look like to the average eye, with a symbol scattered into three parts carved into the side. The red paint for the symbol had faded with time, but the shine of fool’s gold was hardly affected aside from a thin layer of dust that’d been caked on.

In his pure marvel over this object, he swiftly headed out of the moon’s stare into a nearby abandoned shack. The walls had been largely broken up, as had the roof, still allowing for some spots of natural light to shine through to the floorboards, yet it seemed the perfect fit for the man headed inside. 

He set himself against one of the walls that was still partially intact, holding the kettle into a patch of moonlight that seeped through the ceiling. With a clear view, and out of sight of prying eyes, he began to twist the ridges of the teapot. The symbol, once fully broken apart, started to shift together, the edges settling into place with a click as the image became whole.

The picture, now revealing itself to be a skull laden with a pirate hat and matching eyepatch seemed to be mysterious at best now that it had been completed-

But this was no ordinary pirates’ treasure, the man knew- and the way it began to glow in his hands was a testament to that.

The outer light only enhanced the brightness of the teapot’s shine now, the man had to briefly look away to shield his eyes from the intensity of it all. Looking back, a cloud of orange smoke emerged from the kettle’s spout; with that, he quickly set it onto the ground.

From the smoke, a figure began to materialize; arms, legs, as well as a full upper torso and head began to solidify their place. His face surfaced seamlessly with the rest of him, showcasing a long series of hair, from eyebrows to mustache, to beard, as well as a lengthy flowing ponytail. Wrinkles pierced his skin, showing not necessarily age as it did experience, highlighting the corners of his eyes, which then opened to reveal their dazzling green hue.

A look of visible confusion and tension rose across the figure’s body, his eyes bouncing from wall to wall, eventually landing on the hooded man who’d brought him here.

“Where am I? Who are you, stranger?” 

  
  


The man in question gave a grin, pulling his hood down to reveal his face.

It was one the likes of this town had seen before and had hoped to never see again.

His ghastly skin phased through itself, his ghostly form becoming clear as water to the figure. His face showcased its own marks of struggles, his eyes covered in never-fading shadows, while his own hair was pulled tightly into a smoother, albeit shorter, ponytail.

“If you must know, I’m Clouse, someone you don’t know yet but ought to soon enough”

The bravery of him seemed to momentarily stun the other, but it was soon remarked with a smirk of its own,

“Oh, _clever_ are we? Why should I get to know you yet, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

  
“Well, seeing as I just freed you from the Teapot of Tyrahn you’ve so lovingly called home for what must be hm, at least 20 years, I’d say you owe me more than just the time of day, Nadakhan.”

The last word came with a sound defiance that struck out to the man himself, who could only smirk at Clouse. 

“Call me impressed, you sure do your research- I suppose you’re here for your wishes then hm?”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

With that, Nadakhan’s arms came together, hands meeting to fold between each other.

“Well then, I’m sure you already know, but as a Djinn I’m accustomed to giving the rules before anything is set in stone. There are only three things out of my power for you to wish for, and those are love, death, or more wishes. Of course,” he gave a slight chuckle to himself, “that doesn’t mean these things can’t happen as a _result_ of your wishes, I just can’t be the sole cause.”

“Sounds just as I’d planned, perfect. Firstly, I wish to become mortal again, to become again my once human self, just as I was, but with the same mind.”

“Very well, your wish is yours to keep.” With that, he shifted his hands together, now hosting a bright shine between them that vanished as soon as it had appeared, leaving traces of fading sparkles in its wake.

Clouse looked to his arms, hissing in an assortment of pain as they began to become more firm and lose their faded green aura. 

For what seemed like an agonizingly long time, his body reverted back to his human state, now holding a permanence to its weight. Clouse still grimaced as his bones found their place again, the pain was strong, and even though he prided himself on being clever, even he couldn’t hide the pain he felt.

“Hurts doesn’t it? Becoming mortal again is such a painful process.. Of course, you could always wish it away if you want it all to stop, take the aching away permanently. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?” Nadakhan digressed, peering down at his now-acquaintance with a sinister gleam in his eyes.

Clouse shifted his weight uncomfortably, sucking breath through his teeth as he stumbled out, “You’d want that wouldn’t you? It’s l-like you said, I did my research, I know you have tricks up your sleeve just like this one.. I’m not dumb enough to take your word over anything I can trust, I-I can wait this out as long as it takes.”

  
  


Nadakhan’s eyebrows raised, once again he found himself surprised by this man; before he could even remark on this fact, the other spoke again.

“I also wish for my spellbook,” he stammered out, finding his footing again. “I wish for it just as it would be right now- without anyone being the wiser as to me having it in my possession again.”

Nadakhan gave a slight nod, tilting his head to face the light gazing down from the roof. His hands again came together with that bright light, “Your wish is yours to keep.”

Across the room, the book materialized with its own puff of smoke, and Clouse wasted no time limping towards it. He grabbed it with seeming desperation in his hands, his gloves now long forgotten about in that earlier pile of junk. His fingers scrambled as he began to flip from the leatherbound cover to the yellowing pages inside. He softly chuckled to himself, murmuring something unheard from others’ ears but his own; that laughter soon died down as the pages began to crumble in a growing blaze. He dropped the book as it’s temperature rose to unbearable heights, especially to newly-formed hands- short flames burst from the words of the pages and quickly spread, setting off sparks that only quickened its own destruction.

Clouse turned to the Djinn with a thinly-veiled cover over his fury, “What was that? I asked for it in its complete, current state- that was _not_ my spellbook.”

“Oh, but I thought you knew _so_ much?” Nadakhan teased, floating closer to Clouse’s distraught stature, “If you’d looked closer into yourself rather than others, maybe you’d have known that book was destroyed in a burst of flames. I did as you asked, gave it to you in its present condition, maybe you’d like to spend another wish giving your words more thought?”

“Who did this, how did this happen to it?” Clouse demanded, the spellbook now but ash on the ground, not a spark remaining.

“I couldn’t tell you, I only know for what you directly asked for, the rest is out of my sight.” 

“I bet it was those pesky ninja, I can never rest easy when they’re about,” Clouse grunted, kicking the ash into molecules. “What’s the point of trying to get the upper hand on them if people like yourself are blinded to everything they’ve..”

Clouse stopped in his tracks, pondering. 

“You know, even if I can’t gain my own revenge with my current state,” He turned to confront Nadakhan, the grey tint of his eyes showing no hint of cowardice. “You could.”

Nadakhan scoffed, “-And just _why_ would I want to do that? That’s your battle to fight-” 

“That’s what _you_ think,” 

“What do you mean? You’d better explain yourself.” 

“I won’t have to,” Clouse articulated, now turning to a nearby window largely consisting of nothing but glass shards gripping onto the surrounding wood. “For my final wish, I wish you could see everything the fated ninja of Ninjago have done to the realms they’ve reached.”

The light shone brightly again in Nadakhan’s hands, “Your wish is yours to keep.”

With that, a series of scenes blasted into Nadakhan’s mind, one after another, actions of this group of people the city had held so dearly.

  
  


He saw them saving this city he’d never really known again and again for threats that derived from themselves. 

He saw the ninja struggling between fighting between themselves when other lives were at risk.

He saw them messing with the scrolls of the future. 

He saw them hosting the Realm Crystal with little care to its power.

He saw them infiltrating the Cursed Realm, and it crumbling at the seams as a result.

Then he saw the Djinn Kingdom begin to tower over as the Cursed Realm fell.

He saw his father being forced to flee across his home, as the realm he’d known was pushed to the edge like a domino effect.

He saw all this with fuming, watchful eyes.

  
  


Then, he saw the ninja, without a care in the world, partying that _very_ night.

  
  
  


They didn’t care what they had done. 

  
  
  


They didn’t care that it was their fault.

  
  


Finally, the sensation stopped and his face was flush with anger. How could the so-called heroes of the city care so little for the lives of Realms other than their own?

He looked up to face Clouse, who was peering back at him with a knowing grin.

“You see why I want your aid in taking them down?”

  
  


Nadakhan didn’t answer, simply waving his hands together again, and with a flick of his wrists, the spellbook again appeared across the room. 

Clouse’s eyes briefly flickered to it, he stood in disbelief, not wanting to be fooled again.

“You may know a lot about us Djinns, and I commend you for what you’ve learned,” he strode over to the window as well. “But there’s still a lot I ought to tell you if we’re going to be working together.”

Clouse held his breath, not looking away from Nadakhan as his figure slowly began to form legs from the smoke that’d remained below his torso. 

He now fully wore the clothes of a Djinn royal, the armor that’d been confined to his shoulders now supporting his lower legs as well. Nadakhan pulled a golden chain from his pocket and tied it around his neck, it shined brightly before he hid it away below the lower levels of his clothing.

“As no ordinary Djinn, it was my duty to embark on riches for my kingdom, and the best way to travel across the realms was to host my own body similar to those around me. Don’t look so shocked by what you see, or we’re not going to be getting anywhere.”

“No,” Clouse detested. “It’s not that, just- the spellbook,” he nodded towards where it sat across the room, still intact.

Nadakhan walked over to it, shaking out his legs, and picked it up without hesitation.

“Don't flatter yourself too much, I can’t make wishes for myself, it’s the curse of a Djinn, but- I can grant small things for others if there's a strong enough longing. Though, my powers aren’t limited to wishes as they are forcefully brought out.”

He stepped closer to Clouse, holding the leather book outwards to him.

“For instance, if something is specifically wished for me to hear, no matter what I myself desire, I will make it come true.”

Clouse slowly removed his book from Nadakhan’s grip, “That is, if I can’t twist their words as much as I please.”

Clouse gulped, his overbearing confidence now found elsewhere. 

  
  


Nadakhan finally gave into his eye contact, with a smirk he tugged at his long mustache, “Oh don’t look so troubled, Clouse. You said you don’t take just words to trust others, so take this spellbook of yours as a show of good faith. You seem to be a competent man, I could’ve used a few more like yourself on my crew back in the day. So, why don’t we figure out how to best take down these ‘ninja’ together?”

  
  


He held out his hand.

  
  


A temptation or a trick? Another shadow that the moonlight had yet to show in its full colors?

In that moment, it didn’t matter to Clouse.

The only thing that mattered to him was that now, he stood a chance against those he dreaded so.

So, he took his hand without question.

  
  


Nadakhan’s face flashed a grin that couldn’t be read, only allowing for his words to flow out without a pause.

“So, why don’t you tell me about this spellbook of yours?”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be sure to leave a comment or kudos if you enjoyed! <3  
> I'm really passionate about this story and hope to get the next chapter out within a few weeks!
> 
> Feel free to ramble to me on my tumblr!: https://piningpebbles.tumblr.com/


	2. In the Public Eye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo everyone! Let me just say I'm sorry for the long wait on this chapter, quarantine and such really hit me like a truck, but rest assured I'm committed to finishing this story in its entirety no matter how long it takes. I hope this one was worth the wait!

Sometimes waking up is nice, with the warm smell of coffee and determination in the air.

Other times, it was waking up due to a loud blaring air horn in your ear.

This was thankfully, somewhere between those two.

  
  


The sun crept across the Bounty as the day began to pass by, lightly dusting the dining room through the large window that sat its place across from the entrance.

The light spread over the room, creeping inch by inch until finally landing on the freckled teen’s face that was resting atop the nearby table, causing him to stir.

Jay’s closed eyes twitched. He tried to turn his head to go back to his once peaceful darkness, but it was to no avail as the light had now come to dominate the room. He begrudgingly flickered his eyes open, squinting as they adjusted from their previous slumber.

“Hello sun, nice to see you too,” he stretched, lifting himself from the table with notable effort.

“Oh, tingly arms! Don’t think I forgot about you,” he stood, shaking his arms in an attempt to get his blood circulating again. “There we go, that’s a little better.”

He held his shoulder, trying to further stretch and he heard a symphony, no, a full orchestra of pops emerge from his back as he did.

_Did I really sleep here? This is going to do just wonders for my spine, as if my posture wasn’t bad enough.. What kind of party leads to me choosing to sleep on the dining table of all places? Genius, past me. Pure genius._

He groaned.

_Might as well get something to drink since I’m out here already._

He turned and began to walk to the kitchen, noting how cold the tile was, as well as the fact for some reason he only had one sock, making it extra cold. 

“Oh, hello Jay.”

He jumped, glancing up from his one-socked foot to see his nindroid friend, minding his business near the sink.

“Gah! You scared me, I didn’t see you there.”

“Well I am a ninja, after all, I’d hope that’s a plus,” he smiled, turning back to the- what Jay now saw was- mountains of cups and other cutlery stacked on top of each other.

  
  


“Well, you’ve definitely got the qualifications to be here if you got one of your own teammates,”

He walked around Zane to see the fully empty cupboard, “Did we really use every single cup we owned last night?”

“Along with every bowl and spoon, it seems,” Pixal added, her voice buzzing out.

  
  


“Hey Pixal, always good to hear from ya- how’s it going up there?”

“Oh you know, same old ones and zeros, but at least I’ve got company,” She spoke, voice echoing throughout the room. “How was the party? I found myself both disgusted and strangely attracted to that drink Kai and Cole created last night, but Zane didn’t partake in any.” 

“I didn’t want to risk frying my circuits,” He laughed, but Jay sensed there was some genuineness to that statement.

“I’d say you dodged a bullet there, I don’t think I’ll ever even think about touching soda again after watching those guys chug.. _Whatever_ that was down,” he looked across the island at the piles of streamers, crumbs, and sure enough, empty soda cans strewn across the room.

“Man, we kinda wrecked this place, and this isn’t even where we mainly were, just the kitchen. Our poor snack zone...”

“You should see the lounge-” Zane groaned, grabbing some rubber gloves from the top cabinet.

“Do I want to?”

  
  
“No,” Zane and Pixal stated in unison.

“Actually, do you think you could give me a hand with all of these dishes? I was just going to do them myself, but I have no idea where we left the rest of them,”  
  


  
There was a beat before Jay spoke-

“Waitwaitwait- you’re saying this isn’t even all of them?” 

_How and when and why do we have so many dishes at all? I mean I guess living with seven people it’s reasonable, but for five of us to have used all of them in a day? Madness._

“Nope, if I remember right the rest are scattered across the ship somewhere,” He sighed, grabbing a sponge and soaping up the beginning of an eternity. “If you could help find the rest and bring them back, I’d really appreciate it.”

“It’s like a rampant easter egg hunt,” Jay quipped, “No sweat, I can help just ugh-” he yawned.

“If you’re still tired you don’t have-” 

“No no it’s fine, let me just wake myself up,” Jay rubbed his hands repeatedly across his waist, the softest crackle of electricity awakening in his bloodstream sounded before finally reaching up to quickly touch his fingertips to the sides of his head-

_ZAP!_

His hair stood on end, eyes wide and now fully-awake as if caffeine had just got shot into his veins. He’d jumped from the small shock but readily ruffled his hair back to its normal bedhead look. With a new jump-start to his heart, he turned on his heels to the dining room doorway echoing, “I’ll be back when I get them!”

Starting through the main hallway, he could already see more remnant party pieces scattered about. Each half-eaten pizza crust and napkin led like a cookie crumb trail to undoubtedly the biggest mess of them all; the deck. That’s where the party had mainly taken place. 

Hesitantly, he reached for one of the handles and tried to slide it open. Easier said than done, as it gave its own reluctance to his pull, like someone pleading with another to not jump the fence.

_Last call._

He eyed the small opaque windows on the door blinding him from the view of whatever horrors they’d left out there. His hand still gripping the handle, he took a deep breath and prepared himself.

He spun around fully, releasing his hand and looking as far away as he could from that door. He’d cross that bridge when he got to it.

_Yeah, no, I don’t think so. If even the door itself is stopping me from getting out there I don’t wanna see it. There’s bound to be plenty of dishes inside and I am not about to go through whatever’s out there alone,_ he consoled himself. He reached for the set of sliding doors on the opposing wall that thankfully, opened with ease.

Inside had its own mess to behold, but to view it took Jay’s eyes adjusting from the natural, soft light of the hallway, to the dim, multicolored lights that were cast across the room. 

At first glance, he could see the striking multicolored light of his video game system shining across the room, the background music of the repeating cutscene playing at speaking level. Looking to where that light allowed, he saw Cole sprawled out asleep on one of the couches, with Kai accompanying a cozy, crumb covered spot on the floor. 

Sure enough, he caught sight of plates and other utensils piled across the table. Pizza boxes took the space underneath, followed closely by a mini disco ball that was flashing small bouts of different clashing colors periodically. He squinted through the darker edges of the room, not being able to see a thing, but hearing Cole’s light snoring again as he crunched a leftover bag of chips beneath his foot.

_Yeah, there’s no way I’m going to be able to get all of them if I can’t even see the rest of the room,_ he thought. He turned his eyes to the lightswitch that stood beside him, pondering his options before a smirk began to grow across his face.

“Wakey wakey guys!!” 

Jay flipped the switch on and off rigorously, earning a groan from the others that sounded like music to his ears. Through the flashes of light, he saw Cole retreat further into the couch, trying to avoid any contact with the changing light he could get.

“Ugh, Jay come on,” Kai mumbled, his eyes scrunched as tight as he could manage, “We were up all night, what do you want?” 

“Well Kai,” Jay mused, finally keeping the switch flipped on, “ _Some_ people here made a mess last night and left our dishes nowhere to be found-”

  
  
“Oh like you _didn’t_ eat six slices of pizza and insist on a new plate for each slice-”

“The point is-” He blurted out, quickly making a point to regain his composure despite the fact neither of the others were looking at him. “-Are you guys going to help me find them or what?” 

Kai groaned, “You clearly don’t know me at all if you think I’m getting up to help you find some dishes,” he tugged his blanket over his face, trying to shield his eyes from the light. “Wake us up when there’s a real threat.”

He rolled his eyes, “Come on you guys-” he tore his gaze away from the dozy duo to catch a glimpse of one of his bed pillows that’d made its way into the lounge. With little hesitation he grabbed it by the edges and quickly scaled the room to them both. “-You never want to be off guard, danger could come at any moment!”

  
  
_WHUMP_

“What the-” is all Cole could manage before catching his own mouthful of the pillow’s wrath.

“Cut it out!” Kai protested, attempting to catch the pillow as it landed another hit on his face, but he was unsuccessful. 

“You’re just gonna keep catching these feathers if you two don’t help me out-” Jay exclaimed, wielding it above his head for another strike, but he was cut off by a different pillow landing a blow across his torso. Through the unexpected hit, he stumbled off his balance, landing with a thud beside the couch. He looked up at the perpetrator, seeing none other than Cole’s droopy brown eyes glowering down at him.

“These pillows don’t even have feathers in them, dimrod.”

“Cole don’t be rude,” Kai pulled himself up from the floor to lean against the armrest of the couch, “-the _proper_ word is nimrod.”

Jay narrowed his eyes towards them, and this time it couldn’t be blamed on the lighting. _Oh, wipe those smug looks off your faces,_ “Yeah yeah I know I’m just _so_ annoying, what and waking you up at a reasonable hour to help our _dear_ friend Zane clean up,” he exaggerated. He was practically swooning over himself, one arm across his head, the other hand clutching his chest. “-But if you just want to leave him to clean the whole Bounty I guess I can go tell him-”

“Alright wise-guy no need to get out the waterworks, we’ll help you find the plates,”

“What- hey I thought we were on the same side, when did I agree to this?” Kai protested, gaining a good posture for a second from the shock of being pulled into the conversation.

Cole stretched out his arms as he raised himself from the couch, trying to get Kai to cooperate. 

_Wow, it’s been a whole three seconds and I already miss looking down at them,_ Jay thought to himself. He wasn’t trying to zone out, honestly, but he’d heard his friends bicker enough to know how it was probably going. 

_Well maybe I’m not_ that _short, maybe they’re just tall- yeah that’s it._

_Oh, who am I kidding they’re not that tall._

_I can’t even blame this on my genetics, mom and dad are both tall in their own right, the universe just has it out for me. Maybe I could make something to make me taller? No, I don’t want a repeat of what happened last time. Plus they already have heels, which is probably the easier solution. I can’t wear heels in a ninja suit though, how would I even fight? Maybe I could ask Nya. No wait she doesn’t wear heels either, and then she’d ask why and it’d be a whole thing trying to explain how I’ve gotten the unlucky genetic lottery and would like some retribution- oh wait what’s going on._

He snapped back into reality, watching as Kai stood arms crossed to the second pair of sliding doors while Cole started out to the kitchen.

“You coming or what?” Kai grunted.

“Oh yeah,” Jay stammered out, stumbling over previously laid-out blankets and gaming cartridges to reach him.

“So,” Jay started as he followed behind through the wooden hallway, “What are we doing now, exactly?”

“Wha- you wake me up with a pillow to the face and once I agree to help you don’t even bother to find out what we’re going to do?” 

Jay eyed some of the tapestries they’d hung on the walls, noting the stickers he vaguely remembered sticking on last night still glimmering in all their plastic glory.

“Hey don’t blame me for zoning out when you guys argue all the time, hothead.”

  
  
“You are the worst sometimes, you know that? Look, _I’m_ going to start picking up our room, you can go get Nya.” 

“Nya? Why?”

  
  
“We’re going to need all the hands on deck we can get right?” Kai cut in, stopping as he reached their bedroom door. “She should be in her room, good luck waking her up though, I know my sister, and it’ll take more than a pillow to get her out of bed.” Kai shut the door behind him as Jay turned and walked to the door across the hall.

  
  
_Well, it can’t be that hard right? This is Nya we’re talking about._ He creaked the door open, feeling the cool air from her room hit his face as he saw her sleeping next to her bed.

That’s right. She was sleeping, sitting upright, next to her fully made bed.

_Then again, this is Nya we’re talking about._

_  
_ _  
_ He made his way towards her, taking a moment to appreciate the care she’d put into making the most of her living space.

Being her room didn’t have any access to windows, as it was a part of the inner ship, Nya had taken it not as a hindrance but a challenge, and personally installed an assortment of hanging lights to light up her room. He remembered her sitting at her desk, whirling through papers and blueprints trying to figure out how high they would need to be to not hit Zane on the head whenever he came in, and not get tangled up in the overhead fan.  
  


Aside from her bed, she had a bookshelf full of instruction manuals as well as other enjoyable novels to dig into, while the other corner closest to the closet accompanied a punching bag. ‘ _They always say ‘brains over brawn’, why not both?’_ he remembered her saying.

“Hey Nyyyaa-” He jeered, standing now only a few inches from her. She didn’t even turn at the sound of his voice. 

He squatted down, “Nya,” he said in a louder tone. 

With that, she did toss a bit, _progress._

He leaned over and grabbed her shoulder lightly, “We could use your help-” he shook her lightly. 

At the sudden movement, her eyes snapped open, and before Jay knew it he found himself on the ground covered in water.

“Wh- Jay?”

“Well that's, uh, an unfortunate greeting, but yup it’s me-” he coughed out, along with some water he’d inhaled. 

“Sorry, sorry,” she stumbled over herself, making her way towards him, “Just surprised me there, gotta give a girl a warning next time.” Jay took her hand as they both got their footing back.

  
  
“Yeah I’ll be sure to notify your unconscious next time,” He laughed, “So you can fight in your sleep now and still look as beautiful as ever? Is there anything you can’t do?” She let go of his hand, looking around, “Oh- well you know, I always like a challenge” she faltered. 

“So what did you wake me up for?” 

“Oh right, well you remember the party last night?” He started, and as he began his tangent on the events that led up to the present moment, in his ever-wet shirt, they started making their way out of her room to catch up with the rest of the team.

They’d each decided to reconvene in the lounge, which now had a much more presentable appearance to it, but that came with the sacrifice of their previously-only-mildly-dirty hallway. 

Each of the team had taken up their own opinion on the situation, arguing in their usual fashion, when Jay finally finished his recap and entered the room, Nya trailing behind.

“Guys!” Nya snapped before Jay could even get another thought in, “I could hear you bickering from the hallway, you ever think of making that your full-time job?”

“Oh good, you two are finally here,” Cole remarked, the ranting they’d heard from the others now coming to a close as he spoke. “So we were figuring out the dishes situation, but really this whole place is a mess, so now we’re trying to decide who’s going to clean what part of the Bounty. I think since I was the one to pick the great music we got to listen to last night, I should get dibs on the hallways-”

“Uh- did you forget that you were _also_ the one to single-handedly get chocolate frosting all over our sacred tapestries?” Kai argued, “You should get the living room, it’s only fair.”  
  


“Kai I mean no offense,” Zane asserted, drawing both of their eyes towards him, “But you don’t exactly have leverage over Cole here when you used that same ‘sacred tapestry’ as a dish towel last night.”

“I was just trying to clean it!”

  
  
“The point being, I should be the one taking care of the fabrics and general chemicals around here.” 

Cole jumped in, “Zane, I love you man, but you don’t get to take all the cool chemicals for yourself just because you’re part-machine,”

“Isn’t that all the more reason he _should_ get the chemicals?” Pixal asked, prompting only further debate from the trio as Nya turned to Jay- a look plastered on her face that could only be read as ‘ _You woke me up for this?’_ He gave a sheepish look as he tried to figure out what he should say that hadn’t already been said.

“Wait I’ve got it- why don’t we just divide up the work like Jay said?” Kai’s voice cut through their conversation.

_..What?_

“What? I didn’t say anything.” Their eyes were turned to him, waiting for an explanation to clear up this chaos, of which Jay would also like to receive.

“Oh! I think I get what you’re saying-” Nya exclaimed, “Like how we figured this out yesterday, right?”

“-When Kai and Jay were tied on their own planning situation! That makes so much sense, that could work here..” Zane paced his way over to the digital board, quickly marking down a list in different colors as he looked to and from his friends while he was writing down. Cole made his way over to him, nodding along as he looked through the words he’d written, “Makes sense to me.”

_I feel like a fly on the wall even though this was apparently my own idea..._

“Hey!” He called out, causing heads to turn back to him.

“As the so-called originator of this idea, I feel like I’m inclined to know what everyone’s talking about?”

Zane turned from the board to him, quickly stepping aside as he presumably realized his frame was keeping him out of the line of sight. 

“Sorry, I was getting carried away- but what Kai meant is we should do the cleaning based off of our skill sets rather than some other arbitrary reason.”

“Especially since you _all_ are at fault for the messes last night.” Pixal pointed out. 

  
  


She hadn’t meant to call them all out at once, but if the nervous laughter they each stammered out was any indication, even from Zane… They all knew it was true.

_Yeah, she’s right. Guilty your Honor, guilty as charged._

  
  


_Heh, charged._

  
  


“So how is this all going to plan out?” Nya asked, nudging herself closer. Zane swiped his hands over the screen, his words widened from corner to corner as they could now each see what he’d written down.

There was a list of different tasks that needed to be done across the Bounty written in black, some categorized into what room they were in, some not. This ranged from finding the rest of the dishes (which they’d apparently found eleven out of the other thirty-six pieces missing) to getting rid of the gunk that had found its way into the kitchen sink, and everything in between. 

Each task had a colored box drawn next to it with their corresponding colors to who’d be taking which task. It looked fairly even across the board, both literally and figuratively, everyone seemed to have a fair amount of stuff to do.

“Man I don’t know how I’m going to get all that stuff out of the sink,” Jay remarked, “These are supposed to play to our strengths, right?”

Nya gave him a quizzical look, looking again at the board as she said, “What? Oh- Jay that’s my job, see the light blue box?” She pointed towards it, smiling to herself, “Turns out being the master of water has its perks when it comes to cleaning.” He snickered, scanning the list again for that darker shade of blue- yet he still couldn’t find the correctly-colored box.

“Looks like Zane and Nya got all the electrical work covered,” Cole pointed out. Zane gave a nod, “I figured with our knowledge of the systems across the ship, it would best suit us to fix the sound system.”

“Well if you guys are doing that, then what am I supposed to be up to?” Jay questioned, having not found a single box on that board for himself.

“You could always help us get some more stuff from the store- we need to restock seeing as how we tore through all the snacks last night,” Cole recommended. Kai nodded, already getting a headstart on gathering some ( _undoubtedly flammable_ ) disposables.

“You said it yourself man, it’s easier for someone like the ninja of fire to clean, and they’ve already got the tech stuff covered.”

“I mean I’m not about to complain about not having to clean, but shopping?” Jay frowned, “Aren’t we supposed to be _avoiding_ causing a fuss, what if I get recognized? The whole city could be after us if they know we’re not doing anything important,” he leaned closer to Zane, as if for reassurance, “You sure there’s no extra wires or bolts that could use the old Jay touch?”

“Thankfully I don’t think we got wild enough to ruin our central wiring system,” 

_Yeah, of course…_

“-But as for the recognition, I think you’re actually the one best suited for going out of us all.” Zane continued, “You’ve been broadcasted throughout the city the least of us, making you the least likely of us to be recognized.” 

“Man Jay, you don’t have much of a media presence do you?” Kai snickered, “Can’t relate.”

Nya beamed, “I guess everyone’s caught up with the newest blue ninja. I can’t blame them, I _am_ pretty cool.” 

Jay pressed his hand to his chest, “I’m being replaced on my own team, sent off to do the lowest bidding, what a way to go.” With a spin, he grabbed Cole’s hoodie by the chest, “Say it isn’t so Cole! We’re still best friends right?”

  
  
Cole laughed, lightly shoving him towards the door, “Just get to it motormouth, we’ve got our work cut out for us too and we’re gonna need those supplies.”

Jay’s feet scrambled towards the frame with the shove, shoulders falling, “Fine, I’ll do it,” he whined, “-but this better not become a full-time job I swear.” 

“I’ll have Pixal send you the list for what we need,” Zane called out.

Jay muttered out some confirmation of that fact with a wave of his hand as he finally let his footsteps sound out of the doorway.

  
  
_I could use at least some extra coverage.. Lots of eyes in the city._

He passed the main sliding doors at which he so dreaded before, making his way to the hall closet. With a tug, he pulled on the handle and found the piles of clothes and loose equipment with little sense of organization between them. Taking a stray glance towards it, he pulled out the first dark blue thing that caught his eye. 

It was a winter beanie from his mom, a little frayed around the edges, but it still brought a smile to his face as he put it on. He tossed the items that had fallen out back into the closet with a jam- and with a zip of his jacket, he readied his way towards the doors. His mask hung from beneath the folds of his hood, and he found himself hesitating to pull it above his face like he always had.

_Well if they really think I won’t be recognized that easily I shouldn’t need this_. 

He hadn’t put much more thought into it than that, so he believed, yet he found his smile faltering as he dropped his hand from the fabric around his neck, allowing it to remain hidden as he finally set foot on embarking the streets of the city.

* * *

While Stiix itself was not known to be a popular tourist destination, it did have its charms among the rubble.

One of which was a dining area that (minus the trucks) found itself mimicking food truck dining areas, where all sorts of different tastes came together in a larger central region where customers could seat and eat as they pleased. People would come during their lunch breaks or whenever they just wanted to enjoy some tasty (but not necessarily healthy) grub that you couldn’t find in any of the larger chains around the city.

This day was no different, except for two customers that had made their way to one of the many tables near one of the venues. 

The two figures were seated with their bowls in front of them, taking striking glances towards the vendor every few minutes to make sure they weren’t being watched. The vendor himself, however, was not one of the popular food joints, and after serving the pair, slept easily throughout the bustling noise of the otherwise bustling crowds. 

Clouse, hood up once again, had placed his bowl to the side, his large leatherbound book taking priority of his view as he carefully read through each page. To his side sat Nadakhan, wearing some torn off-the-rack clothing. He tapped his chopsticks carelessly on the table as he attempted to feed the noodles into his mouth.

He fumbled again and again, making little effort to contain his discontent with the situation, but his partner paid him no mind. With one final noodle sent with a splash back into the bowl, he tensed up, skin beginning to shimmer again in frustration as he slammed his fist on the table.

Clouse hastily pulled his book up before any stray broth could fall onto it, sending a glare the other man’s way.

“What are you doing? Stop drawing attention to yourself!” He barked, “You’re lucky that merchant has less than his wits about him or we’d both be in trouble.” 

Nadakhan glared, “Well can you blame me when all you got us was this slop? This is no proper food for a prince to eat. You forget that unlike you, I have standards.” 

“You think this was my ideal choice for where I’d like to eat?” Clouse hissed, “I’m sorry if this doesn’t fit ‘your Majesty's’ previous norm, but you’re not exactly that golden child anymore. We’re trying to make sure we’re not found out, so you’re going to be stuck with the rags and ramen for a while whether you like it or not.”

Nadakhan scoffed, pushing away his bowl and laying his arm across the table as he continued to tap along the top with his chopsticks. 

“Well if you’re _so committed_ to this, have you at the very least found a spell that will help us defeat those ninja yet, or are you just here to waste my time?” He challenged.

Without so much as a glance, Clouse turned to the next page, “Would I still make us sit here in this trash-lined seating if I had? My power isn’t unlimited. I have to abide by the laws of what's in this book no matter how much I would love to do just the contrary, just like your own powers. So when I say I haven’t found anything, that’s it.”

Nadakhan rolled his eyes, finding them landing on a TV that was strapped to a pole close to one of the other food outlets. Being so far off he couldn’t make out the words, but he could see images of the multicolored silhouettes he’d come to recognize quite well. The ninja.

He snapped the wood between his fingers and let it fall through the cracks in the table, turning to Clouse with a huff, “Well you could at least do me the favor of telling me more about these ninja we’re after. I already know what they’ve done across the realms, but what’s our plan to strike?” 

“Do you want me to sit around and hold your hand to explain who they are? My word and what you’ve already seen should be more than enough,” 

“Do you expect me just to be able to defeat them with a flick of my wrist? I thought you were a smart man, you should know more about your enemy if you care so deeply about bringing them to the ground.” 

Clouse slammed the book shut, frazzled as he fully turned his frustrated gaze towards his taller accomplice, “I don’t have the time to both define who they are and what they’re capable of while trying to find a spell to stop them. If you want to go out and risk our whole operation be my guest, but I won’t be waiting around for you to get caught.” 

Nadakhan could only sneer towards his scowl, “You have such little faith in me.” He climbed out from his seat, gripping both hands on the edges of the table as he leaned in closer, “I’ve been fooling sailors and kingdoms before I even hit my prime, you think a little city could stop a prince?” 

He released his hands from the siding and made his way towards the makeshift alley that stood beside the vendor. Out of sight from all but the seagulls and the once-again mortal himself, Nadakhan lifted his shoulders back and disappeared into his orange cloud of smoke.

Clouse noted the slight stir that emerged from the merchant, but little else came as the smog near-immediately found itself dispersing in the air.

“Idiot.”

He pulled his book open once again, landing on the velvet bookmark he’d laced between the pages before his outburst, and he continued to scour the pages for just what he was looking for.

* * *

The sound of bells chiming from an open door and the end of a farewell hummed out of the wooden doors that found themself closing shut as Jay made his way back onto the streets. The local store’s business had been pretty slow, having been in a quieter part of the city, but that didn’t make Jay’s hands any less full.

The brown bags full of different assortments of cleaning supplies and food items flooded his arms, but he’d taken careful notice to make sure they didn’t also flood his line of sight.

  
  
Thankfully, while the morning he’d been greeted with was fairly sunny, the afternoon had loosened the heat with some clouds roaming across the city skylines. It would make for a pleasant walk home if Jay could just kick all the knots that seemed to be twisting in his stomach.

“It’s not a big deal,” He muttered, trying not to stumble over himself as he grabbed his phone from his jacket pocket. With a swipe, he looked over the list Pixal had sent him and ensured he’d been able to cram each item into his bags. He stuffed it back into his pocket, regaining his grip as he slowly made his way across the sidewalk.  
  


  
He was hardly alone on the stone pathway, spotting a few smaller kids sitting on the curb in front of him. He wasn’t making any haste, the bags he was carrying could’ve been the sole reason, but truthfully, he couldn’t help but decrease his pacing when he noticed the kids’ attire.

One was wearing what looked to be a handmade ninja gi, similar to Coles’ from a few months back- aside from some loose strings and pants that could use some hemming. The other wore a bright t-shirt emblazoned with each of the team’s elemental symbols in bright colors. The last one was a bit more lively, waving her arms about, but Jay was able to catch the multicolored light-up shoes he remembered Kai signing off on.

  
  
“Well there’s no way Cole could defeat Lloyd! He’s the master of Earth, not the planet!” Spouted the boy in the graphic tee.

  
  
“Earth is the planet! How could you forget,” retorted the Cole look-alike.

“No there’s just- there’s no master of the planets!”

“Except for Cole! Earth!” 

“That doesn’t count,” the girl in the light-up shoes debated. “They mean like rocks and dirt and stuff!” 

  
  
“Well the Earth is made of rocks and dirt, and water too! I bet he could control water if he really wanted to.”

“I don’t think he can control anything with water-”

“Why not?”  
  


“Because that’s Nya’s power, and Zane’s too kinda? I guess kinda Kai’s…”

  
  
“What? Kai is literally fire, that’s the literal opposite of water-”

  
  


They continued to rave as Jay made his way past.  
  


He would’ve easily been able to speed by, but he would acknowledge that _maybe_ he took longer than he needed to ‘checking his phone’ or looking at rocks that had made their way into the cracks on the sidewalk as he walked beside them.

  
  
“Oh I get it, like if Zane and Kai work together they could melt the ice and be like Nya!”

  
  
“Well then couldn’t Cole work with them both and then be able to control the Earth! He’ll have the water then?”

“No cause Zane’s _ice_ !! _Not_ water! Once it’s water, _poof_ , he can’t control it anymore!”

“Well could Nya get ice then? It’s kinda just cold water-”

“Maybe Kai and Zane could make her lots of water really fast so Nya could have a whole flood of it to take out the bad guys! Then Cole could raise the group up super high so they don’t drown!” 

The mini-Cole spun as he was clearly enthralled with this idea, and struck eye-contact with Jay, bags-in-hand and all. 

Jay nervously brushed a smile to the kid, who only gave a polite grin in reply before returning to his friends.

“What about Lloyd? They’re trying to take him down right?”

“No, well, I mean they could! A flood as big as the Earth could stop anyone, they could totally defeat him if they wanted to-”

“Don’t you think they’ll need extra power? Lloyd’s defeated so many villains, they’re gonna need everyone right?”

“Well yeah! Jay could like- shock the water so it electrocutes the bad guys!”

“Well, Lloyd’s the master of energy right, couldn’t he do that?”

“I mean maybe, but this is if they were against Lloyd, and Jay’s the master of lightning, which works!”

“He’s not the master of electricity though, right? It’s lightning, that’s clouds and junk, electricity _is_ energy-”

He didn’t want to admit how much he wanted to stick around and hear the end of their conversation, but he could no longer ignore the crosswalk sign flashing for him to pass as he finally tore himself away. 

He tried to focus on just getting back to the Bounty, avoiding passing large crowds or any of the sort to draw more attention himself, but when his mind just kept rekindling the events of him at the shop and passing by those kids, all his mind would bring him back to was: _Why bother?_

This area of the city was always quieter than others, and Jay found himself both detesting and being grateful for that fact as he found his mind racing through the passively empty streets.

He shook his head, feeling the slight tightening of his grip on the paper bags.

“So what if no one knew who you were, that was the whole reason they sent you out here to do this in the first place,” he stammered to himself.

He caught sight of written ‘thank you’ posters and signs still loosely hung to the walls from when the Overlord was taken down. 

“You know who you are, these people know who you are. You’re the master of lightning, you help save the city! -And sure maybe people are taken aback by Nya being in the spotlight now with what happened with Stiix, but they haven’t forgotten you’re there! You just, don’t have much of a media presence- like Kai said! It was just an alternative to cleaning anyways there’s no reason to get so upset.”

“...”

His mind flickered back again to those kids on the sidewalk. 

“It’s not like Nya hasn’t earned the spotlight either- she’s so supportive and strong, maybe she deserves to be the new face of the blue ninja, blue fits water better than lightning anyways. I could always get a new color, but why stop there-”

What the title ‘motormouth’ tends to gloss over is that while words may come out a million miles a minute, thoughts that spiral into those words come out just as fast, and can be just as overwhelming to listen to. His mouth was still moving, but it’s almost as if he was unaware of it, just speaking aloud while his brain continued to spiral further.

His mind flashed back to the Tournament, early-on when they were just being introduced to each of the other descendants. He remembers making some snarky remark about Griffin. 

_“Uh- Master of speed? That’s not an element.”_

_  
_ _  
_ _“So asks the master of lightning.”_ _  
_

_  
_ Garmadon was right. 

  
  


He couldn’t even deny that his powers didn't fit with the rest of his friends. Even those kids before had to leave him for last in their own hypotheticals.

With a team of water, fire, ice, earth, and essentially limitless energy, it was like lightning had found a way to strike itself out.

_“You’re the least likely of us to be recognized,”_

“Zane’s the one who said it. Garmadon said it. These are people I can trust to be honest with me, just-"

_Why did it have to be them who said it?_

“Maybe I wish things were better, that everything could just go away for a bit. It’s not a crime to want to be known right?" 

He could feel the energy pricking across his fingertips as he shuffled through the sidewalk, but he brushed it off.

"I wish they were just being mean and teasing, then- then I could at least get on their case about it, like it just wasn’t true-”

He stopped. The shadows created from the clouds above now seemed so dark, so harsh. The weight of the bags now seemed to drag his arms to the ground. 

“But it was.”

"..."

“It is.”

He felt the spark through his fingers still sending shocks through his system, but at that moment, it was nothing to him. Numb

He shook his head yet again, mumbling, “Come on Jay get a grip. What kind of ninja spends his time doing this?” 

He reminded himself where he was. This wasn’t the place. This wasn’t the time.

“I should get home,” he muttered.

With that thought, he found himself able to hear the sounds of the street again. The shuffling of feet, the occasional car horn honking, and the chatter from the next crossroads that had been lost to him came back in a flood. Looking up at the sky, he saw the Bounty hovering what would be just a few blocks away.

He attempted to shake out the still ever-present shakiness in his fingertips, but when that failed to work, he tightened his hold on the bags and just decided to hope for the best. Jogging, he tried to focus now solely on the sounds of the city again, finding them a bit overwhelming but better than the latter option.

However, his reluctance to question the closeness of those sounds is what allowed a certain hurried set of footsteps to follow in close pursuit without so much as a glance.

* * *

Nadakhan was by no means, a stupid man.

He had ruled over the seas for years before he was sucked into that teapot, fooling sailors all over with his mind as sharp as ever, however, when he found himself under the blindfold of anger’s redness, he seemed to get careless. 

The new era of technological advances across the city made it difficult enough to get around, but the crowds that had seemingly found their way onto every street corner, making it near-impossible to disappear from sight didn’t help.

That didn’t stop him from accomplishing what he came to do though.

He’d roamed the streets for a few hours, taking time to get a glimpse of every persons’ face he could. He was determined to find those faces from the images that had now been plastered into his memory.

He’d scoured the bank, the Borg tower, even the arcade (with how childish they were) looking for them, but to no avail. They were ninja, after all.

  
  
Each notable landmark in the city just seemed to lead to another dead end.

He’d become increasingly frustrated, finally decided to head back on the route to Stiix. 

  
  


Have you ever heard someone talking to themselves?

  
  


Often times it’s quiet, just under their breath- but sometimes you’re able to make out a sentence or two.

In this case, a sentence was not all he made out as he took a glance up ahead from the alleyway he’d been trudging through.

Those freckles. That nicked eyebrow. That face.

Exactly who he’d been looking for, and thankfully he was too caught up in his own world to notice himself creeping closer. 

Nadakhan swept himself not too far behind the talkative teen, making a point to attempt to blend in as a window-shopper when he heard a mumble different from the rest. It was quieter, but he’d thankfully been close enough to hear it now.

  
  


_“I should get home,”_

  
  


Who was he to deny himself the opportunity to find out just exactly where the rest of his friends had been hiding? Needless to say, no matter how far Walker went, he wasn’t far behind.

His form had now become almost completely corporal as he fixated onto Jay. Anger had blinded him, but now with a target, how could he look away?

He followed him to the rooftops, not afraid to teleport himself up there as well with even less than a flick of his wrist. He hid behind a nearby lighting fixture, watching carefully as he saw him tug the beanie from off his head- but before he could smirk further at how that only confirmed the identity of this ninja, he noticed the chain that was latched onto the side of the rooftop.

The silver hung from somewhere way up high, the clouds had become so thick throughout the day he hadn’t bothered to look up, but as he did just that- with a squint, sitting right on the edge of the clouds was a ship. A gorgeous ship, though from this distance he could only vaguely discern exactly what he was seeing. 

He’d never seen a floating ship before, but he hadn’t seen a lot of things that he’d seen today before.

Looking back towards where Jay had been, shock hit as he didn’t have sight of him on the rooftop any longer. Swiftly he wrenched his head from side to side, not bothering to seek cover as he teleported himself to where the boy had been standing. 

As close as he now was, he saw the chain in all its glory. In fact, he now saw what it was attached to that had been hidden from his view; an anchor nestled between the alleyway below him. Looking back up towards the ship, he saw a spiral of blue making its way towards it.

Could it-? It had to be.

He saw the blue dissipate as it made contact with the ship, and with a grin on his face he decided to follow suit- soon disappearing into that orange smog and reappearing on that brilliant ship. He found himself on the mast, the large sails and cloudy skyline making sure his shadow wasn’t discernable among the rest- and sure enough, there was that blue ninja again.

He grabbed hold of the bar below him, crouching as he peered down, now properly noticing the mess this deck was in- he didn’t even want to describe it to himself, only finding his face grow hotter as it seemed these children couldn’t even take care of their _own_ things, let alone a ship as great as this. He closed in his attention onto Jay, watching him untie the bags from his back and laying them on the floor. He then heard scraping mixed in with slow and tedious grunting as he flipped his head to see the red ninja open the door.

“Hey! You finally made it back, took you long enough,” Kai grinned, attempting to shut the door behind him, but when it didn’t come easily, he just let it be as he walked closer to his friend.

“Yeah sorry,” Jay stammered out, “I actually got caught up with the paparazzi on my way here, so many questions, I think my ears are still ringing from all the fans screaming,”

Kai almost seemed sympathetic before viewing the brown bags below his feet, which caused him to smirk. “So all those people were after you and yet they didn’t grab a hold of anything here? You sure got lucky,” the sarcasm oozed out of his voice.

Kai grabbed a plastic container that’d been ripped open and stuffed into one of the bags, giving Jay a confused look.

“Alright so maybe the paparazzi didn’t come after me, but there was no way I was going to get up here carrying all of these,” he gestured to the surrounding bags. “That’s just a Realm Crystal’s worth of trouble anyways, so I used some of the rope to tie the bags around me while I got up here.”

“Man I can’t even imagine trying to keep that thing under wraps,” Kai recalled, “I’m glad we were able to give it to Borg -I can barely keep my own quarter of the room together before I lose something,”

“You didn’t have to tell me that,” Jay mockingly assured, “-but you _are_ right, I’m glad we don’t have to worry about it anymore now that he’s got it covered.”

Nadakhan’s fingertips dug into the wooden pole, his face fell blank in disbelief but still ever-ripe with anger. He bit his lip as he watched the red ninja help carry the brown bags into the open sliding door, and the moment both he and Jay were out of sight, he vanished from the Bounty without a trace.

* * *

“They don’t have the Realm Crystal!” Nadakhan shouted.

Clouse jumped from the sudden, sharp noise, turning to see his accomplice who had just poofed in. He sighed, returning his eyes to the book in his lap. 

They were both once again in the abandoned shack, which Clouse had clearly put some effort into cleaning up while Nadakhan was away. The windows were still broken, and the roof was not without its fair share of holes, but now the glass was kicked away, and the larger portions of the roof had at least some covering over them. 

“No, they don’t,” he stated, prompting Nadakhan to faze from his previous spot near the wreckage to right in front of him.

“-And the reason you didn’t feel the need to tell me this is?” He fumed.

With a cross of his arms, orange mist surrounded him yet again, only this time, under the thin cover of familiarity, he returned to his original Djinn form.

Clouse looked up into his fierce green eyes, unwavering from his own as he stood up. He shut the book and held it under his side as the shadows beneath his eyes only seemed to grow.

“Allow me to remind you that I have been in hiding. You wouldn’t seem to know what that entails with how recklessly you transport yourself from place to place, so let me explain it to you.”

He walked across the wooden flooring to the farthest wall, where a makeshift window had been covered by a larger piece of cloth. Nadakhan drifted behind him as he pulled the tarp to one side. 

The view you gained from this opening was largely just more water, but if you looked out at just the right angle, you were able to see the dining area they had just sat at before. Once Clouse was positive the other could see just that, he covered the window once again, saying, “Apart from my book, _that_ is where I allow myself to get my information every day, and that’s not much is it? You should know. Once I learned about the Crystal’s disappearance, you think I didn’t want to scour the ends of this city looking for it? Of course I tried, but you can’t go very far when your face is plastered on every corner. The ninja don’t know I’m here, and I’d like to keep it that way.”

He rubbed his face, feeling the fatigue spread across his skin as he properly grabbed the leather book again.

“Getting information on you was hard enough, I nearly got caught more times than I can count, and this would be far more challenging than just bribing a few guards. I wouldn’t even know where to properly start looking, or what defenses they have set up for the Crystal, and I don’t plan to put either of us in the situation to obtain it blind.”

Nadakhan for one of the very few times looked at Clouse with some sense of admiration. Unknowing and uncaring whether the other man noticed, he turned towards the tarped window once again. He’d been through that very city today, that very assortment of vendors and street-shops, and he’d made it out with more knowledge than he’d come into it with. He’d first thought it was just ignorance on his partner’s half, but now he saw that maybe it was his own privilege that let him get as far as he did today.

A privilege he could use to their advantage. 

“How much do you know about a man called Borg?” He called out.

“Borg?” Clouse questioned, earning a nod. 

“His full name is Cyrus Borg, worked with the ninja to defeat the Overlord about a year ago. He’s responsible for all the gadgets across the city that you no doubt saw today. He prides himself on what he and his team accomplish, even has his own museum dedicated to the work they do. Why? Does he have something to do with this?”

Nadakhan’s sly smile could only grow as he shapeshifted back into his human persona. He pulled off the pointless cloth Clouse had given him before, reaching into one of the inner crevices of his armor. He pulled out a bronze locket, emblazoned with the same logo that had been on the teapot. Inside it stood a clock, that even after all these years, found itself ticking in perfect time.

He shut it once again, wedging it back into his clothing as he clipped it shut. Afternoon began to fall across the city as the skies changing hue soared through the window that had remained untouched. It glossed over Nadakhan’s skin, allowing a strong feeling of confidence to wash over him as well.

“Tell me again about the spells you’ve reviewed,” He directed, “I believe I may have found us the perfect plan.”

* * *

“-And got it!” 

Jay grinned, tossing the now-empty paper bag to Kai, who promptly crumpled it. 

He raised his head from the cupboard beneath the sink, having just restocked all their cleaning supplies from head to toe. 

The kitchen in its entirety now was as clean as ever. Sure, there was still the occasional stain that had been ever so cleverly covered up by a placemat or two, but to this family, that was a mark of improvement. The bags of chips and leftovers that had previously taken hold of this area were now gone, leaving only the strong smell of bleach in their wake.

_Okay, maybe Zane went a little overkill with that stuff_. 

“Sick, I’ll go let everyone know we finished up in here,” Kai responded, already turning to make his way out the doorway.

“We did it!” Nya whooped, nearly knocking her brother off his feet as she slid through the entrance. Kai shook his head, bewildered, but upon seeing Cole and Zane not trailing too far behind, he gawked.

“Really?”

“You better believe it hotshot! Just got the last garbage bag tied up and ready for pickup,” Cole boasted, earning more celebratory hollers from the siblings. Jay turned the corner of the island, strolling in to join them all. 

Zane was pulled into a hug from Cole, smiling as he was released, saying, “It was far from easy, but I’m glad to finally be able to say the dock is back in working order,”

“-Making the Bounty just as clean as it was when the others left,” Pixal finished. 

Jay chuckled, “You could give Griffin a run for his money with how fast you guys cleaned this whole place up.”

“Oh you wouldn’t believe how we had to sort out _just_ the dock,” Nya started, “First Cole had to come and sweep up all the trash that’d been lying around. Then it was up to Kai to try and burn anything that crusted onto the wood off, which I had to be on standby for-”

“Oh please, it’s not like I was going to burn down the ship,”

“-In any case, he got that done. Then it was up to me and Zane to try and mix together the right chemicals and water and really get to scrubbing. I actually got to use spinjitzu to speed it up, and to finish it off, get this- Pixal remotely activated the training course and got the switches back in working order!”

“I wasn’t even aware that something had happened to them,” Zane shook his head, “but that’s why it’s good we all got to pull our fair share.” Jay found himself looking away, his attention near-begging to bounce to his other friends. Thankfully, Cole spoke up.

“You’re telling me,” He pulled out one of the short dining chairs, resting his head on the table as he took a seat. “I’m so glad we don’t have to worry about anything else today, I’m about beat.”

“Well we can’t celebrate just yet,” Jay said, trying to keep the conversation going as he watched Cole only slump further on the table. “Crime, unlike sleepyhead over here, never sleeps.”

“Oh come on Jay, loosen up-” Kai said. Nya joined them, jesting, “I think the city might’ve gotten to you too much. Lloyd and Sensei just left, I'm sure that-"

A loud beeping burst its way through the intercom of the room. A small smirk found its way of spreading on Jay's face as he saw Cole roll his eyes. 

"Oh, what's going on now?" Cole groaned, begrudgingly pulling himself out of the chair. 

"Relax," Kai said, already making his way into the hallway. "It's probably nothing- let's just check it out," 

The large touchscreen in the lounge that had previously been vibrant in its colors, now found itself flashing only one. Red.

“Pixal- what’s happening?” Zane asked. The screen then stopped flashing, now showing a panoramic of Borg Tech and Ninjago History Museum, Pixal’s voice sounding over the video.

“It’s nothing life-threatening, but it seems someone’s broken into the BTN History Museum around the North-Eastern area of the city. No cameras inside or out tracked anyone breaking in, but the motion sensors tell a different story,” the video shifted to one of the inner security cameras, catching nothing. 

It seemed like a pointless cut-away until the feed switched to the motion sensor triggers, where on the same feed they’d just seen nothing, _something_ rushed its way across the bottom edge of the camera view. 

“The local authorities have asked for our assistance to help scope things out if we’re not preoccupied. It could be harmless, but it never hurts to check.”

Kai chuckled, “See it’s nothing to worry about. Probably just a stray raccoon that made its way inside, I don’t think it’s going to rob the place.” 

“Still, the fact that nothing was caught on regular tape is unusual to say the least,” Zane commented. 

Jay rested his head on one of his hands while they talked. For some reason he couldn’t stop thinking back on how they’d cleaned up the dock. How they’d finished that nearly-impossible task in less than a day. How he didn’t even need to lay a finger for it to get done.

That once overwhelming feeling came back, but was now passively in the background of his mind. 

That almost made it harder to get away from.

  
  


“Unusual, but not impossible to get away with,” Cole slid in. “While Kai’s idea isn’t totally dumb, it’s probably some kids just wanting to cause some trouble. The least we could do is go over there and check it out.” 

“We should all go,” Nya prompted, “Sensei wants us to keep training right? What better way to train than to get some real-life experience in there?” 

Kai grinned, “Not a bad idea sis, plus then we get to tell them how much _we_ helped around the city while they were gone.” You could practically see Kai’s eyes shimmering at the thought. Zane sarcastically sighed at his expression, remarking nonetheless, “It would be nice to get out there again, the training course _does_ get dull after a while..”

“Well then it’s settled,” Cole said. “Let’s suit up and make our way down, we’ll meet up together at the back entrance, got it?”

“Got it,” they affirmed.

“One last thing before you all get going,” Pixal called out, her voice beckoning not a single step leave the room just yet.

“I know this seems like a simple mission but remember to always try to keep your cool. I know we all may bicker and laugh at eachother but I don’t want you to get held up because of any petty arguments. I’m not trying to point fingers, I just want you all to remember that while you may fight, first and foremost you fight on the same side. Act like it, because you’re a team.” 

“Thanks Pixal, we won’t forget,” Nya signed off. “Now let’s go show this city that we can still handle whatever it throws at us!” Quick cheers were thrown about as they all hurried into their rooms.

Jay yanked his proper ninja gi from his and Cole’s shared closet before he bolted his way to the bathroom. He let out a breath as he quickly shut the door behind him, hearing the grumbles escape his teammates from being forced to find a new place to get ready. 

He began to unzip his jacket as he listened to the muffled sounds behind the door, trying to focus on anything to keep his mind from wandering. 

To keep him from being stuck in this place where his thoughts echoed across the tile like thunder.

But Pixal’s speech, as seemingly harmless as it was, just seemed to repeat in his head. Pushing through like a storm. 

Why couldn’t he stop replaying these conversations?

Why did the simplest things make his stomach knot?  
  


_“You’re a team,”_

  
  


_Right._

**Author's Note:**

> Be sure to leave kudos or a comment if you enjoyed- they make my day to read!  
> I'm really passionate about this story, and I'm hoping to get the next chapter out within a couple of weeks!
> 
> Feel free to ask questions or ramble to me on my Tumblr, I try to stay as active as I can on there!  
> https://piningpebbles.tumblr.com/


End file.
